John Davis

12 January 1921 – 13 July 1984 · Smithtown, New York → Albuquerque, New Mexico

John Henry Davis was the dominant heavyweight Olympic weightlifter of the 1940s and early 1950s. Between 1938 and 1953 he was unbeaten, winning six world titles and Olympic gold in London 1948 and Helsinki 1952. In Paris in 1949 he became the second man, after Charles Rigoulot, to clean and jerk the original Apollon's Wheels.

Origins

Davis was born on 12 January 1921; Smithtown, Long Island, is usually given as his birthplace, though he grew up in Brooklyn and is often described as a Brooklyn native. He first came to prominence in 1938, when, as a seventeen-year-old schoolboy, he won the world light-heavyweight title in Vienna. For most of his career he lifted for Bob Hoffman's York Barbell Club.

The work

After his 1938 world title Davis enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1941 and served in the Pacific; he returned to compete at the national championships in 1942 and 1943 but missed 1944 and 1945. After the war he moved up to heavyweight and won the world championships in 1946 (Paris), 1947 (Philadelphia), 1949 (Scheveningen), 1950 (Paris) and 1951 (Milan), as well as Olympic gold in 1948 and 1952 and the 1951 Pan American Games. His unbeaten run ended at the 1953 world championships in Stockholm, where a thigh injury left him second. A serious leg injury at the 1956 Olympic trials ended his career.

His clean and jerk of Apollon's Wheels in Paris in 1949 was the second recorded, after Rigoulot's in 1930; Norbert Schemansky made the third in 1954.

Notable feats

• World champion six times: 1938 (light-heavyweight), 1946, 1947, 1949, 1950 and 1951 (heavyweight); second in 1953.
• Olympic heavyweight gold, London 1948 and Helsinki 1952.
• Sixteen ratified world records: seven in the snatch, four in the clean and jerk, two in the press and three in the total.
• Credited as the first man to lift more than 400 lb in competition, with 402 lb at the 1951 U.S. national championships.
• Clean and jerk of the original Apollon's Wheels, Paris, 1949 — the second on record.

Later life

Outside lifting Davis worked as an officer in the New York Department of Correction. He died of cancer in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on 13 July 1984, aged sixty-three, and was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1989.

Legacy

Davis's record — twelve national titles as well as his world and Olympic wins — makes him the most successful American weightlifter of the immediate post-war period. As a Black athlete at the centre of the York team he also sits awkwardly in the history of mid-century American strength culture: Jason Shurley's study of his coverage in Strength & Health is titled, pointedly, "Unequaled Yet Never Equal".